First Drive: 2016 Mazda CX-9

How to haul seven humans and still have fun.

By
David Zenlea

Dec 18, 2016

Webb Bland

YOU ARE LOOKING AT ONE OF THE LARGEST, and definitely least powerful, vehicles we've recently featured. And it's a crossover, a kind of automobile this website frequently ignores (although there's usually a utility vehicle just out of frame, carrying the photographer and our gear). So, what's the CX-9 doing here?

Start with the fact that it's a Mazda. Really a Mazda. Whereas the old CX-9 shared underpinnings with the Ford Edge, this iteration relies on the same basic components set as the excellent-to-drive 3 compact, mid-size 6 sedan, and CX-5 crossover. Although everything's been stretched and beefed up for three-row-crossover duty, signs abound that the CX-9 is a large version of something that's actually small—like a petite woman pregnant with twins. That hurts utility: There's less passenger and cargo room than in other three-row crossovers, and even the driver's throne is a little tight, with a narrow footwell and a short seat bottom that doesn't sufficiently support the thighs.

The payoff is that the CX-9 looks and feels like those smaller Mazdas. The seating position and dash layout are wonderfully familiar, even as the controls, materials, and sound deadening have zoomed upmarket. The CX-9 turns in happily, with meaty steering feedback, and corners flat. If you take a turn too quickly, all that mass behind you tries to heave over the front wheels, and you think, "Oh right, this is a seven-passenger box."

The new turbo four-cylinder creates a similar illusion. Mazda has employed some neat tricks to keep the turbocharger on boost, principally, a clever exhaust-manifold design that has two separate routes—one via larger ports, one via smaller ports—for exhaust gases to enter the turbo. The smaller pathway accelerates the exhaust gases to help spin the turbine more quickly. So, there's always plenty of torque, enough to tug at the steering wheel under hard acceleration even on this all-wheel-drive model. Mazda eschewed an eight-speed automatic (or, perhaps, didn't have the money to develop one, since it's still a tiny company), but the six-speed 'box is always in the right gear. The net is that the CX-9 sprints through traffic like a smaller vehicle with a bigger motor while achieving an impressive 23 mpg on the EPA combined cycle (24 mpg for the front-wheel-drive version).

What Mazda does better than just about anyone these days is engineer vehicles to feel a certain way, rather than just hit number. The CX-9 feels like a car we don't mind driving. It's a gentle reminder, much needed this month, that a good time behind the wheel comes in many forms.

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